A Distempered Tango
by JennyLD
Summary: Two steps forward, three steps back--it's the story of their lives.


**Disclaimer:** Smallville stole my soul from Doctor Who. Unfortunately, it didn't come with any rights of ownership.  
**Author's Note:** Written for Naughty Seduction's December/January fic battle. Thanks to Cy for the countless hours of line tweaking, scene suggestions, and hand holding. This fic wouldn't be half as good as it is without her help (it probably wouldn't even be done).

* * *

_If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story__  
__-Orson Wells_

Sated in a post-coital haze is not the most opportune time to contemplate one's destiny. Still, fools and philosophers alike often speak of it, of whether man can overcome his predetermined fate and change the future. Whether the right decisions made can alter the story's ending, making a mockery of God and predestination with equal fervor.

This shouldn't be one of those decisions.

Finding solace in the arms of a girl--a _woman_, only just barely so--who has seen enough to damn him ten times over and yet doesn't know enough to let any of it scare her away, shouldn't be the moment that alters his course.

And yet, lying in this bed with Chloe by his side, things seem different now. He feels almost clean, unsullied by the suspicions, the lies of the past few days. Shannon's murder isn't the first someone tried to pin on him (the Luthor name doesn't exactly inspire innocence until proven guilty) and it probably won't be the last. But someone believed in him this time. Believed and fought and if it wasn't for her, he might not be here now.

This isn't just about gratitude. He's not fool enough to think it's love either, but it reads an awful lot like a beginning.

And maybe the end has already been rewritten.

* * *

The circumstances are all too familiar to him by now. A late night break in at Luthercorp, security systems disabled, cameras rendered useless by a lithe figure all in black. Lex is reasonably certain as to whom he'll find hacking into his computer in the middle of the night, most likely leaving a trail of missing documents in their wake. Only two people he knows of are capable of getting past Luthorcorp's security so easily and his wife is missing from her side of the bed. Again.

Still, he can't help but feel a twinge of disappointment when he opens the door.

"Now why am I not surprised to find you here?"

"Lex!" Her eyes are wide with surprise. "I was just…"

"Spare me the details, Chloe. Just tell me you left something behind. Or did you wipe everything you could get your hands on."

At least she has the decency to look contrite. "I was only after one thing, Lex."

"And did you find it?"

She doesn't answer, doesn't have to. It's not their first time round the dance floor. Two steps forward, three steps back--it's the story of his life, and their marriage. And as much as he'd prefer a waltz--the two of them moving together, her taking his lead--when she looks at him from across the room, eyes shining with something close to regret and a spark of adrenaline fueled arousal, he knows he'll settle for the tango.

"And what would you do if I said yes?" She murmurs with just the hint of a smile, the edge of a challenge that makes him think of punishments that aren't really punishments at all, of silk cords and soft flesh and his name on her lips like a benediction.

Leaning against the doorframe, watching her gather up her things--secreting away all the devices she used to breach his defenses--he concedes this victory to Chloe.

"I think I'd have to take you home."

* * *

He walks in on her in the study, a file folder in one hand and a smoking gun in the other.

"When were you going to tell me about your plans for dear old dad? At the reading of the will?

Knowing it won't make a difference, he feints right. "The retirement home in Florida? I hardly see how the choice in where my father spends his golden years is of any concern to you."

"Save the lies, Lex. I've got enough evidence to convict you on premeditated murder if you go through with this."

There's no doubt in his mind that she does. And knowing Chloe, she probably has more back-up copies than there are farms in Smallville. There's no talking his way out of this one, not like before. They won't be burying their mutual disappointment in each other in a sexual haze this time, it isn't just another mark on the score-card of their marriage.

Sadly, he doesn't think she's dancing anymore.

He corners her by the fireplace, barely enough room between them to breathe. "I would think," he mouths quietly, grasping her gently by the arms, "you'd be the last person to shed a tear at Lionel Luthor's funeral. After everything he's done to you, Chloe, after everything he's done to the people that you love."

A light goes out in her eyes and somehow he knows it isn't coming back, "It's not your father I'd be crying for."

* * *

**Luthor Marriage Falls Apart**  
_Wife of three years cites irreconcilable differences_

Lex looks up from the morning edition of the Daily Planet to find Chloe standing in the middle of his study, face set in resolution, a suitcase clutched in both hands.

"I wasn't aware that it's customary to file for divorce through such embarrassingly public venues."

She doesn't flinch, but then again, he never expected her to. "Lex, please."

"Please what?" He asks, though it's more of a demand than anything. "Please don't make this any harder than it already is? Come on, Chloe, I'm not the one airing our dirty laundry to the first available reporter."

"If it means anything, this isn't exactly how I wanted it to end either."

"But you _did_ want it to end." He doesn't wait for her acknowledgement; it's there on his desk in black and white print, in the bedroom they shared now devoid of her things. "What I don't understand is how you could betray me like this. How my own wife--"

"i_Ex_i wife."

_No!_ The thought is almost physical in its rejection. After everything she's put him through, every time she's crossed him, every failure he's accepted in order to keep her, does she really think he'll let her go without seeking repayment in full?

Stepping out from behind his desk, a dark chuckle escapes his throat. "You of all people should know it's not that simple. What we won't be finished by a mere piece of paper."

There are no tears, only a look of regret and a sad sort of acceptance. The eleventh hour has come and gone, and he can almost feel the hand of fate at his neck.

"No, Lex, we were finished a long time ago."

* * *

The day the divorce was finalized, Lex stood on the courthouse steps watching her with a cold, hard hate in his eyes. She knew then that it wasn't really the end but a new beginning, a new chapter, one writ in blood and pain and revenge.

She feared for her life that day, but she should've known better.

He wouldn't touch her, not when there were much more twisted ways to make her cry.

_A stray bullet from a gang war piercing her cousin's chest, ripping her heart to shreds._

She can't escape the nightmare landscapes, can't run away from the images of the people she cares about most, her family and friends, perishing before her very eyes. Random, senseless acts of violence and chance that are chock full of intent and careful planning.

_A hit and run driver running her dad's car off a cliff and then speeding away before flames turn the sky into a kaleidoscope of oranges and reds, and thick, black smoke rolls across the road._

Everything happens for a reason, some reasons are just more subtle than others.

_Her best friend caught in a stampede, her life and all her plans for a bright, happy future crushed in a matter of seconds._

For the first time since their marriage vows, Lex keeps his promise. And every time he stakes his claim anew, Chloe dreams of dancing, of the sweet push-pull of control, of eyes wild with arousal and fingers fierce with need, only to wake to a new horror, to find the dreams of what once was replaced with the nightmare of what her life has now become.


End file.
